Radio Subsystem for Emitting/Receiving Software Defined Radio with Opportunistic Secondary Use

ABSTRACT

Software defined radio equipment is provided. The equipment includes a software defined radio emission/reception radio sub-system, a primary software defined radio application and a secondary software defined radio application capable of interfacing with the radio emission/reception sub-system. The primary software defined radio application is a telecommunications application and the secondary software defined radio application is a cognitive radio application. A software defined radio emission/reception radio sub-system is also provided.

This claims priority to French Application No. 11 04033, filed Dec. 22,2011 and hereby incorporated by reference herein.

BACKGROUND

The present invention relates to a radio sub-system foremitting/receiving software defined radio with opportunistic secondaryuse, being part of a piece of radio equipment.

Generally, the invention is located in the field of radiocommunications. The recent emergence of software defined radio, knownunder the acronym of SDR for “Software Defined Radio”, sees anincreasing number of applications in the field of radio communications.

A software defined radio equipment notably includes a radioemission/reception sub-system ensuring emission and/or reception of anelectromagnetic signal, commonly called a “SDR Transceiver” according tothe terminology. The radio sub-system is capable of operating in thesense of emission on the radio media, of reception from the radio media,or most often of both, either alternately (half duplex) orsimultaneously (full duplex).

According to the state of the art, such a radio sub-system ischaracterized by that it necessarily has a software interface forexchange of messages or control requests and data with the softwaredefined radio application which uses it.

The useful signal exchange between the radio emission/receptionsub-system and the software defined radio application is a digitalsignal, typically digitized in a complex representation in base band.

The radio emission/reception sub-system includes a stage for analogprocessing operations, interfaced with the radio propagation medium, anda stage a digital processing operations, interfaced with the softwaredefined radio application, separated by a digital/analog and/oranalog/digital conversion.

The signal processing chain carrying out the transformation between thesignal at the input and the signal at the output can only operate at thegiven instant for the needs of one and only one software defined radioapplication. Such a signal processing chain typically includes analogand/or digital filtering operations, of digital decimations and/orinterpolations, of frequency transpositions, of Hilbert filteringoperations, etc., is distributed between the stage for digitalprocessing operations and the stage for analog processing operationsdepending on choices specific to each implementation architecture.

In addition to the digital portion of the processing chain, strictlyspeaking, the digital portion of the software defined radioemission/reception radio sub-system comprises the software meansrequired for the interaction with the software defined radio applicationusing the radio emission/reception sub-system.

The previous discussion summarizes the characteristics of a radioemission/reception sub-system in the typical case when the radiosub-system is only used by a single software defined radio application.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention is included in the case of radio equipment where severalsoftware defined radio applications simultaneously use a same radioemission/reception sub-system. For example, when a conventional radiocommunications application is executed simultaneously with a radiospectrum analysis application for radio sensing, or further in the caseof telecommunications simultaneous with electronic scrambling.

Nevertheless, for the reason that the processing chain of the radioemission/reception sub-system can only operate at a given instant forthe needs of a single software defined radio application, joint use of asame radio emission/reception sub-system by different software definedradio applications requires specific software interactions between theapplications which use the same radio emission/reception sub-system soas to ensure synchronization which avoids any access conflict betweensoftware defined radio applications and the radio emission/receptionsub-system.

Such modifications in the software packages induce potentiallyburdensome couplings between software defined radio applications, withthe associated impacts in terms of software development and integration,and difficulties in managing the configuration of the resulting softwarepackages when the combinatorics of the potentially coupled applicationsincrease.

The motivation of the invention is to find a remedy to theaforementioned drawbacks, by allowing a joint implementation of severalsoftware defined radio applications which access the same radioemission/reception sub-system without the applications depending on eachother, avoiding costly software failovers.

For this purpose, an object of the invention is a software defined radioemission/reception radio sub-system being part of a piece of softwaredefined radio equipment, including a radio processing chain, achievingfor emission the transformation of a digitized signal stemming from asoftware defined radio application into an electromagnetic signalcapable of being conveyed by radio media and vice versa, for thereception, the transformation of an electromagnetic signal stemming fromthe radio media into a digitized signal capable of being processed by asoftware defined radio application, and a software control modulecapable of driving said radio processing chain while strictly observingprimary control requests from a software defined radio application, alsocalled primary software defined radio application.

The software defined radio emission/reception radio sub-system ischaracterized in that it is capable of processing secondary requestsfrom at least one other software defined radio application, also calledsecondary software defined radio application, independent of the primarysoftware defined radio application, applying means for:

-   -   receiving at least one secondary control request from a        secondary software defined radio application,    -   determining at least one primary inactivity period of said radio        processing chain corresponding to the non-use of said radio        processing chain according to the primary request(s) emitted by        the primary software defined radio application, and    -   activating by means of an interface of said radio processing        chain so as to satisfy, for a determined primary inactivity        period, at least one secondary control request emitted by at        least one secondary software defined radio application.

Advantageously, the software defined radio emission/reception radiosub-system may thus be used by software defined radio applicationstotally independent of each other, without any need for specificprogramming for ensuring a joint operation of these applications. Thesecondary software defined radio application uses the radioemission/reception sub-system in an opportunistic way, withoutperturbing the operation of the primary software defined radioapplication, for periods of time when the radio sub-system is not usedby the primary software defined radio application.

The presence or not of a secondary software defined radio applicationthus does not by any way have an impact on the programming of theprimary software defined radio application, and a secondary softwaredefined radio application may be replaced with another one without anyadditional programming of the primary software defined radioapplication. Conversely, from the moment when the secondary softwaredefined radio application is programmed so as to have an opportunisticsecondary access, it does not need to be modified regardless of theprimary software defined radio application actually used. Only intrinsiccompatibility limits between the needs of use of the radioemission/reception sub-system by the primary software defined radioapplication and those of the secondary software defined radioapplication will limit the possibilities of proper operation of thesecondary software defined radio application.

The radio emission/reception sub-system according to the invention mayalso have one or more of the features below:

-   -   the software control module is further able to determine, for a        given determined primary inactivity period, whether the duration        of the primary inactivity period is sufficient for completely        satisfying a received secondary control request, and in that the        means for activating said radio processing chain are only        applied in the case of positive determination;    -   a primary control request includes at least one piece of signal        information relating to the signal to be emitted or to be        received and at least one piece of time information relating to        a time instant for beginning emission or reception;    -   a secondary control request includes at least one piece of        signal information relating to the signal to be emitted or to be        received, but does not include any time information relating to        a time instant for beginning emission or reception;    -   said signal information comprises frequency information of the        signal to be emitted or to be received and a piece of        information on the number of digital signal samples to be        emitted or to be received;    -   it includes means for storing in memory a pending secondary        control request;    -   it includes means for receiving and storing in memory several        secondary control requests each stemming from a different        secondary software defined radio application, and in that the        software control module includes means for selecting secondary        control requests to be processed according to a predetermined        order.

According to another aspect, the present invention provides softwaredefined radio equipment comprising a software defined radioemission/reception radio sub-system as briefly described above, aprimary software defined radio application and a secondary softwaredefined radio application capable of being interfaced with the radioemission/reception sub-system, characterized in that the primarysoftware defined radio application is a telecommunications applicationand in that the secondary software defined radio application is a radiosensing application.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent fromthe description which is given thereof below, as an indication and by nomeans as a limitation, with reference to the appended figures wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of the portions of software defined radioequipment applied according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is an exemplary implementation of exchanges between a primarysoftware defined radio application, a secondary software defined radioapplication and a radio emissions/reception sub-system according to theinvention; and

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of the main steps of a software program able toimplement the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The invention deals with the simultaneous implementation of two softwaredefined radio applications, typically a primary radio communicationsapplication which is treated with priority, and a secondary application.

The invention finds applications in the civilian field, the primaryapplication being a telecommunications application, for example,according to the GSM standard, and the secondary application being aradio sensing application, which for example consists in analyzing thespectral environment of the radio equipment.

Alternatively, the invention finds applications in the military field,with a primary wave form telecommunications application, and a secondaryapplication of the sensing type cognitive radio or of the electronicwarfare type (emission of interferences, decoy or intrusionmeasurements).

The radio equipment 10 according to the invention, illustrated in FIG.1, comprises a software defined radio emission/reception radiosub-system 12, or “SDR transceiver” according to the terminology, one ormore computers 13, applying a primary software defined radio application14, called hereafter a primary application and a secondary softwaredefined radio application 16, called hereafter a secondary application.

The software defined radio emission/reception radio sub-system 12includes a signal radio processing chain 18 connected to the radio media20 via an antenna, the last stage of the processing chain, and asoftware control module 22, in the form of computer programs implementedby a digital processing processor. The radio processing chain 18includes, for reception, a portion of analog processing operations and aportion of digital processing operations separated by an analog-digitalconversion stage, and, for emission, a portion of digital processingoperations and a portion of analog processing operations separated bydigital-analog conversion stage. The radio processing chain 18 inemission achieves transformation of a digitized signal stemming from asoftware defined radio application into an electromagnetic signal ableto be conveyed by radio media, and, in reception, the transformation ofa received electromagnetic signal via the radio media into a digitizedsignal capable of being processed by a software defined radioapplication.

In particular, the software control module 22 comprises a softwareinterface 24 with the programming interface 26 of the primaryapplication 14. Thus the primary application 14 is capable of exchangingprimary requests (RP, AP) with the radio sub-system 12, comprisingprimary control requests and primary data requests. While the primarycontrol requests convey information from the software defined radioapplication 14 to the radio sub-system 12, the information flowsassociated with the primary data requests proceed from the softwaredefined radio application 14 to the radio sub-system for emission, andvice versa for reception.

Typically, the primary application 14 sends via the interface 26 primaryreal time control requests of the type ‘RP( )=CreateRxBurst( )’ or ‘RP()=CreateTxBurst( )’ for requesting reception or transmission of a packetof samples of a radio signal during a burst which extends over aspecifically determined period of time and during which the radiosub-system 12 has to perform a specific signal transformation.

The primary control requests provide a piece of signal informationcomprising any information useful for proper configuration of the signaltransformation which the radio processing chain 18 of the radioemission/reception sub-system 12 has to perform, or “a tuning profile”.For example the “tuning profile” includes the radio operating frequency,the bandwidth of the signal to be received or to be emitted, or furtherthe sampling frequency of the base band signal exchanged between thesoftware defined radio application 14 and the radio emission/receptionsub-system 12.

The primary control requests also ensure control by the software definedradio application 14 of the time characterization of the bursts, byproviding the whole of the time information or corresponding “timingprofile”. More specifically, the question is defining the burst length,typically expressed in the number of digital signal samples or in theduration of the corresponding analog signal, and the instance of timefor beginning emission or reception, potentially provided with anaccuracy of less than the duration of a base band signal sampleexchanged between the software defined radio application 14 and theradio emission/reception sub-system 12.

The software defined radio emission/reception radio sub-system 12performs with strict compliance time instructions (“timing profile”) andsignal processing instructions (“tuning profile”) as provided by theprimary application 14 via the primary control requests. The primarycontrol requests are processed by the control model 34, which relies onan interface 28 for activating the radio processing chain 18 in order toconfigure it and activate it according to the needs of the primaryapplication.

During the reception of a burst, the radio emission/reception sub-system12 sends back the series of received samples via one or more primarydata requests of the type ‘AP=PushRxBBSamples( )’. The data exchange mayalso be carried out sample by sample, continuously according to thecontinuous or streaming transmission techniques, known to one skilled inthe art.

During the emission of a burst, it is the software defined radioapplication 14 which sends to the radio emission/reception sub-system 12the samples to be emitted via one or more primary requests comprisingdata of the type ‘RP=PushTxBBSamples( )’. In the same way as inreception, data exchange may be carried out sample by sample, in astreaming mode.

The whole of the specifications provided above corresponds to theconfiguration involving a software defined radio application and itssoftware defined radio emission/reception sub-system in the case ofsoftware defined radio station executing a single software radioapplication on the relevant radio channel.

Within the context of the invention, where a secondary opportunistic useof the radio emission/reception sub-system is considered, theinteractions between the secondary software defined radio applicationand the radio sub-system proceed from the mechanism described hereafter,which do not correspond to simple duplication of the primary controlinterfaces.

The software control module 22 of the radio emission/receptionsub-system further comprises interfaces for the primary control and datarequests, means or an interface 30 for a software interface with aninterface 32 for programming the secondary application 16.

Along the lines of the means discussed earlier, which the primaryapplication has 14, the secondary application 16 has the possibility ofexchanging secondary control and data requests with the radioemission/reception sub-system 12. In particular, the secondaryapplication 16 exchanges secondary control requests RS with the portion30 of the software control module 22 via the interface 32, and receivescorresponding answers AS from the interface 30.

The difference between the primary request is that the secondary controlrequests do not, for any secondary opportunistic access, specify anytime information for the beginning of emission/reception onlyinformation relating to the desired duration of the bursts, leaving theresponsibility to the control module 22 for deciding to activatesecondary bursts according to the information on vacancies of use by theprimary software defined radio application.

For this purpose, the software control module 22 comprises control meansor a controller 34 capable of controlling the radio processing chain 18,via the activation interface 28, according to the primary requests andthe means or activator 35 for activating the radio processing chain 18,via the activation interface 28, according to the secondary request,utilising a means or determiner 36 for determining primary inactivityperiods P of the radio processing chain 18 as compared with its use bythe primary application implemented by the means or controller 34.

For example, a secondary request, of the type‘RS=requestRxSecondaryBurst( )’ in reception or‘RS=requestTxSecondaryBurst( )’ in emission, sent via the interface 32of the secondary application contains information on the nature of thesignal processing to be performed (“tuning” information) similar tothose which the primary application would have transmitted, informationon the desired burst duration, but no information on the intendedinstant for beginning operation of the radio processing chain 18.

Unlike the primary control requests, which have the value of a controlon the radio processing chain 18, the secondary control requests have tobe satisfied when the use of the radio processing chain 18 by theprimary application 14 leaves vacant ranges allowing means expressed bythe secondary software defined radio application 16 to be met.

The secondary data exchange request and answers similar in every respectto the primary data exchange requests and answers are also exchangedbetween the secondary application 16 and the radio emission/receptionsub-system 12.

After determining a sufficient primary inactivity period of the radioemission/reception sub-system for implementing the secondary request,the means or interface 28 for activating the radio processing chain 18are applied by the means or activator 35 for emitting/receiving a signalaccording to the secondary requests, thereby generating a secondaryburst inserted between the primary bursts.

The time instant for applying the secondary request and the size of theprocessed packet of samples are notified by the software control module22 to the secondary application 16 via the interfaces 30 and 32, forexample via a message ‘notifyRxSecondaryTiming( )’ in reception, or‘notifyTxSecondaryTiming( )’ in emission. The notification for the timeinstant for applying the secondary request may be accomplished accordingto different formats. For example, it may be dated in a time alsoaccessible by the secondary radio application, or relatively to a knownevent of the secondary software defined radio application.

For a secondary reception request, the received samples are sent to thesecondary application via messages of the type‘pushRx2ndBasebandSamples( )’, with the possibility of continuouslysending them, sample by sample, according to the streaming techniquesmentioned above.

Also, in emission, the transmitted samples are sent by the secondaryapplication via messages of the type ‘pushTx2ndBasebandSamples( )’, withthe possibility of sending them continuously, sample by sample,according to streaming techniques.

An example of a primary inactivity interval appears in one of theapplications of the invention when mobile transceiver stations regularlytransmit a synchronisation pattern, an interval being not used in thetime structure of the radio protocol for allowing synchronizationoperations by taking into account the variations of the propagation timeof the signal between two stations. When the receiver is physicallyclose to the transmitter, the reception of the synchronization patternconcludes in the first portion of the allocated synchronization timeinterval, which leaves available time corresponding to a primaryinactivity interval on the remainder of the synchronization interval.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example for simple use of the emission/receptionradio according to the invention. FIG. 2 shows in parallel messages(requests and answers) exchanged by the primary and secondaryapplications and their processing over time by the radio processingchain or radio interface 18.

The primary application 14 sends to the radio emission/receptionsub-system 12 or “transceiver” first a primary control requestRP(B1,B2), and then a primary data request, concerning the transmissionof the packets of samples or bursts B1, B2, each for example including1024 digital samples of a signal from an instant t₁ in time.

A secondary control request RS(B′) of the secondary application 16, forexample in the case of a secondary cognitive radio application, relatingto the reception or acquisition of a packet B′ of digital signals of asignal with a given frequency, for example, of 128 samples is then sentto the radio emission/reception sub-system 12 after the instant t₁.

Finally, a second primary control request RP(B3,B4), followed by aprimary data request, for the transmission of packets of samples orbursts B3, B4, each for example including 1024 digital samples of asignal, from an instant t₂ in time, is sent to the radioemission/reception sub-system.

The radio emission/reception sub-system 12 drives the processing chain18 via the activation interface 28 for answering the primary controlrequests.

Further, the radio emission/reception sub-system 12, applying the meansor determiner 36 for determining a primary inactivity period, determinesaccording instant t₁ and to the transmission duration of the packets B1and B2, that the transmission ends at the time instant t′₁. Now, thesecond primary request begins at the time instant t₂, therefore theperiod P comprised between t′₁ and t₂ is an inactivity period of theradio processing chain 18 upon considering the primary requests.

The radio emission/reception sub-system 12 drives the processing chain18 for applying the secondary requests RS(B′) for the primary inactivityperiod P, after having checked that the duration of the primaryinactivity period is sufficient for acquiring a packet B′ of 128samples. The acquired packet of samples B′, as well as the time instantfor reception t′, are transmitted as an answer AS(B′, t′) to thesecondary application 16.

The flowchart of FIG. 3 illustrates the main steps applied by thesoftware control module 22 of a radio emission/reception sub-system 12applying the invention.

A step 300 for awaiting a request from a software defined radioapplication is applied by the software control module 22.

During the reception of a request in step 310, it is checked that thisis a primary control request RP in step 320. The distinction betweenprimary and secondary control requests is accomplished, for example,according to the formulation of the request. Indeed, as explained above,a programming interface 24 is dedicated to primary requests, which aredifferent from secondary requests, specified in the programminginterface 30.

In the case of a positive answer, step 320 is followed by step 330 formaking available the means or interface 28 for activating the parametersspecified in the primary control request RP, with view to driving theradio processing chain 18 according to these parameters, at an instantwhich may be subsequent to the instant for executing step 330.

Next, in step 340, the time information on the use of the processingchain, extracted from the primary control request RP is stored inmemory.

In an embodiment, the primary control request RP specifies an instantt_(s) for beginning emission or reception of the primary burst and aprimary burst duration, with which it is possible to infer the instantof the end of use of the radio processing chain 18. The instant forbeginning and ending use of the radio processing chain are stored inmemory.

In a first scenario, the instant t_(s) of the beginning of emission orreception of the burst coincides with the beginning of the use of theradio processing chain 18. The calculation of an instant of the end ofuse of the radio processing chain 18, knowing the duration of a burst,is then inferred trivially.

In a second scenario, the radio processing chain 18 starts earlier thanthe specified instant t_(s), in order to take into account latencies inthe processing chain. The shift of the starting instant of the radioprocessing chain 18 is then taken into account in the calculation of theinstant of the end of use of the radio processing chain 18.

Step 340 is followed by a return to step 300 for awaiting a new request.

In the case of a negative answer to the test 320, it is checked in step350 whether this is a secondary request, therefore stepping from asoftware defying radio application recorded beforehand as a secondarysoftware defined radio application. In the case of a negative response,the step 350 is followed by a return to step 300 for awaiting a newrequest.

In the case of a positive response to the test 350, the secondaryrequest is stored in memory and put on wait in step 360.

Step 360 is followed by step 370 for determining a primary inactivityperiod of the radio processing chain 18, by using the pieces ofinformation of the beginning and of the end of use stored beforehand.

In an embodiment step 370 and the following steps are applied by asecond programming task (“thread”), different from the firstsprogramming task applying steps 300 to 350, so as not to interfere withthe priority processing of primary requests. These programming tasksshare a memory space in which the first programming task storesinformation on the use of the radio processing chain 18, and stacks thesecondary control requests to be carried out, and if need be, thecorresponding secondary data requests, and the second programming tasksreads information in this memory space.

Thus, if two periods of use by the primary application (t_(s),t_(e)) and(t_(s)′, t_(e)′) have been stored in memory, the period comprisedbetween t_(e) and t_(s)′ is a primary inactivity period. Of course, theinstant t_(e) is located in the future relatively to the applicationinstant (current instant t_(c)), so as to be able to provide aprocessing operation beginning from instant t_(e). Preferably, thedetermined primary inactivity period is the period the closest in thefuture to the current instant.

It is then checked in step 380 whether the signal processing operationrequired by the secondary request may be achieved during the time periodP=[t_(e), t_(s)′], for example by checking whether the requested numberof samples may be received or emitted in the time period P, knowing thenumber of samples which the radio processing chain 18 is capable ofprocessing, in emission or in reception, per unit time.

In the case of a positive answer at the end of step 380, therefore ifthe secondary request may be met, a control for driving the processingchain, comprising the signal information of the secondary request andthe time instance of the beginning and end of the determined primaryinactivity period, is sent to step 390. The secondary request is thendeleted from the stack of awaiting secondary requests.

Step 390 is followed by the step for waiting a new request 300 describedearlier.

In the case of a negative answer, step 380 is followed by the waitingfor a new determination of the primary inactivity period of the radiomodules (step 370).

The invention was described above with a primary application and asecondary application.

Alternatively, the simultaneous implementation of several secondaryapplications is contemplated. Each secondary application registers atthe radio emission/reception sub-system, so that the radioemission/reception sub-system recognizes the origin of each of thesecondary requests and sends adequate answers to the secondaryapplications. When the radio emission/reception sub-system receivesseveral secondary requests, a processing order is applied for answeringthese requests according to the primary inactivity periods of theprocessing chain in response to the primary requests, as explainedabove.

According to a first alternative, the processing order is simply theorder of arrival of the secondary request, according to standard orderfirst come, first served.

According to a second alternative, the software module further includesmeans or an evaluator for evaluating the time required for theprocessing chain for processing each of the secondary requests, andmeans or applier for applying a corresponding processing order forexample the increasing order of times required for the processing.

Thus, the software defined radio emission/reception radio sub-systemproposed is capable of operating according to the hierarchy of requestsof any number of independent applications simultaneously using thisradio emission/reception sub-system. The proposed software defined radioemission/reception sub-system is flexible, inexpensive and easy tomaintain.

What is claimed is:
 1. A software defined radio emission/reception radiosub-system being part of software defined radio equipment, comprising: aradio processing chain, achieving for emission, a transformation of adigitized signal stemming from a software defined radio application intoan electromagnetic signal capable of being conveyed by radio media, andvice versa, for reception, the transformation of the electromagneticsignal stemming from the radio media into the digitised signal capableof being processed by a software defined application; a software controlmodule capable of driving said radio processing chain while strictlyobserving primary control requests from the software defined radioapplication, also called a primary software defined application, thesoftware defined radio emission/reception radio sub-system being capableof processing secondary requests from at least one other softwaredefined radio application also called a secondary software defined radioapplication, independent of the primary software defined radioapplication; the software control module including: a receiver receivingat least one of the secondary control requests of the secondary softwaredefined radio application, a determiner determining at least one primaryinactivity period of said radio processing chain corresponding tonon-use of said radio processing chain according to the primary controlrequests emitted by the primary software defined radio application, andan activator activating via an interface said radio processing chain soas to satisfy for a determined primary inactivity period the at leastone secondary control request emitted by the secondary software definedradio application.
 2. The software defined radio emission/receptionradio sub-system as recited in claim 1, wherein the software controlmodule is further capable of determining, for a given determined primaryinactivity period whether the duration of the primary inactivity periodis sufficient for completely satisfying a received secondary controlrequest, and wherein the activator for activating said radio processingchain is only applied in the case of positive determination.
 3. Thesoftware defined radio emission/reception radio sub-system as recited inclaim 1, wherein at least one of the primary control requests includesat least one piece of signal information relating to the signal to beemitted or to be received and at least one piece of time informationrelating to a time instant of the beginning of emission or reception. 4.The software defined radio emission/reception radio sub-system asrecited in claim 1, wherein the secondary control request includes atleast one piece of signal information relating to the signal to beemitted or to be received, but does not include any time informationrelating to the time instant of the beginning of emission or reception.5. The software defined radio emission/reception radio sub-system asrecited in claim 3, wherein said piece of signal information comprisesfrequency information on the signal to be emitted or to be received, anda piece of information on the number of digital samples of signal to beemitted or to be received.
 6. The software defined radioemission/reception radio sub-system as recited in claim 1, wherein thesub-system includes a storage for storing in memory a pending secondarycontrol request.
 7. The software defined radio emission/reception radiosub-system as recited in claim 1, wherein the sub-system includes areceiver and storage for receiving and storing in memory severalsecondary control requests each stemming from a different secondarysoftware defined radio application, and in that the software controlmodule includes a selector for selecting secondary control requests tobe processed according to a predetermined order.
 8. Software definedradio equipment comprising: a software defined radio emission/receptionradio sub-system as recited in claim 1; a primary software defined radioapplication; and a secondary software defined radio application capableof interfacing with the radio emission/reception sub-system, the primarysoftware defined radio application being a telecommunicationsapplication and in the secondary software defined radio applicationbeing a cognitive radio application.